Work Starts on $600M Redevelopment Project

The project is being developed by the Landings at Harborside LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kushner. The firm had been designated as the official developer of the 49-acre site in late 2000. At build-out, which is expected to take up to eight years, the Landings at Harborside will include more than 2,000 residential units in a mix of townhomes and luxury mid-rise condos.

Also part of the project, according to Gershwin, will be up to 150,000 sf of retail space including an international market, plus an indoor parking garage, a hotel site, a marina and other recreational facilities and a 30-foot-wide landscaped esplanade lining the project's 2,800-foot waterfront. The Landings at Harborside faces Staten Island Sound.

The four-phase project includes a cleanup of the blighted site and the demolition of a number of existing structures, according to Gershwin. The area's infrastructure will also be substantially upgraded.

"The Landings is planned to combine the openness of suburban living with the feel of a small town, and all the conveniences of an urban environment," Gershwin explains. "The redevelopment area will be a contiguous part of surrounding neighborhoods, the waterfront and the historic downtown."

Kushner has also completed the assembly of the design and construction team for the project. Among the firms involved are the Liebman Melting Partnership of New York, which is the project-wide architect and master planner, and the New York-based EDAW Inc., the landscape architect. Schoor DePalma of Manalapan, NJ is the project-wide consultant on civil engineering and LGA Engineering of Lakewood, NJ is providing marine engineering services.

On the legal side, WolfBlock Brach & Eichler of Roseland, NJ is handling acquisition and land issues, and Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla of Middletown, NJ is handling environmental and regulatory matters.